


Shades of Cool

by Anonymous



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Banter, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Moving, Swearing, physical affection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 09:45:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10851423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Ethan's experiences starting from his move to LA.





	Shades of Cool

**Author's Note:**

> For the longest time, I was pretty squicked out about participating in fan culture of any real people, but I’m succumbing, and in some ways I ought to acknowledge that these people had some impact on my life.

Ethan had thought the move from Cape Elizabeth to Portland was huge. Moving from a town of nine thousand to one of over fifty thousand had been a jarring change. The houses were clustered too close together, no green, no rocky cliffs. He couldn’t bike out toward the sea and watch the sun set behind the lighthouse anymore. But that had been nothing like moving to LA. He missed the smell of the cold and the seawater, and the way that every sound seemed to ring in the thinner air. But LA was amazing in other ways, the sunshine, the glittering buildings, the wide avenues lined with palm trees. And Ethan liked the mixture of people who lived there. It was if he’d finally entered into the wider world.

 

The first thing that Ethan noticed about LA was the heat. It settled on him like a woolen blanket as soon as he stepped outside the airport. And then the brightness hit him; every surface seemed to glow near-white. He blinked a couple of times and cursed under his breath; his sunglasses were tucked away deep inside one of his suitcases. He squinted out onto the driveway and sifted through the cars until he saw a tall, curly-haired man step out and wave to him.

They met on the curb and Ethan shook his hand.

“Nice to see you again,” Tyler said. Ethan grinned and let him take a suitcase.

The drive back to the apartment wasn’t too long, and although it was the middle of the day, Ethan was starting to feel sleepy; he’d woken up at four that morning to catch the plane. They brought everything up to his new room and Ethan crashed on the mattress without making it.

He woke up later that evening and started the process of unpacking. Mark stopped by and they ordered pizza for dinner and planned work for the upcoming weeks. Afterwards they watched Kill Bill until it was time to sleep again.

 

The next day Tyler took Ethan to get some furniture for his room. They stopped at In ‘N Out for lunch and headed over to the office to work with Mark. Ethan had met them all before, Bob, Wade, Amy, Kathryn, but he was still worried he wouldn’t mesh well. But the day passed easily – editing, setting up cameras and mics, filming. There was never a quiet moment in the building. They worked late into the night. When Ethan finally got home, he was exhausted.

He sat on the edge of his bed and gazed at the half-open boxes and equipment scattered around the room. He didn’t move for some time.

 

Within the week Ethan found himself dressed in a nylon shirt despite the warm weather and dancing with strangers. He supposed he shouldn’t be too surprised. It was a thrill to interact with new people and make a fool of himself with his friends. Afterwards, he teased Mark mercilessly about ripping his pants and took great joy in leaving it in the video.

It was the night after the November charity livestream. Ethan stood in the bathroom with the door open, staring into the mirror and scratching absently at his face.

“Ethan?” Tyler said, passing by the doorway. “What are you doing?”

“I still feel your stupid little hairs on my chin,” Ethan muttered. He squinted harder; he couldn’t _see_ anything, but the phantom hairs tickled his skin. He rubbed under his nose again.

Tyler grinned and stepped beside him. He covered Ethan’s nose and mouth with one hand and squeezed, swiping down and away. Ethan huffed in annoyance.

“Nothing, I promise,” Tyler said.

“I bet I swallowed one,” said Ethan. “I bet I _inhaled_ one. In nine months I’m gonna give birth to a baby Tyler.”

“That’s not how biology works,” Tyler said patiently.

“I’m gonna shit out a baby Tyler,” said Ethan, rubbing at his face. “Stone face baby. Bet I’ll have to shave his beard too.”

“Okay,” Tyler said. He ruffled Ethan’s damp hair and left him to it.

 

And then the holidays started to roll around. Ethan didn’t realized he’d be so abused – rocket-propelled tennis balls, water balloons, flying arrows – but he got to destroy gingerbread houses and yell at the top of his lungs whenever he wanted. He was ferocious smiles, gangly limbs, quirked eyelids.

They were at Amy’s house. Mark had left to pick up dinner, so it was only Tyler, Kathryn, Amy and him. They’d been dicking around for awhile; Ethan had tried to teach the others how to do a split, but he was in jeans and so was everyone else. They’d all ended up on the floor, splayed out and laughing breathlessly. Ethan giggled and poked Tyler in the side.

“I thought you used to do sports,” Ethan accused. “Why are you so shit at this?”

“I played _football,_ not gymnastics!”

“Aren’t you supposed to take ballet or something?”

“Well excuse me if I didn’t!”

Amy snorted. “I’d love to see that – Tyler in a pink frilly tutu—”

“I’m Tyler,” Kathryn said. “I’m the prettiest ballerina in the whole wide world.”

“You...” Tyler said warningly.

“I’m Tyler,” said Amy. “I once pirouetted across the entire field and scored a touchdown!”

“Defensive backs don’t score touchdowns!” Tyler said. “I swear to God, one more—”

“I’M TYLER!” Ethan said. “AND I—”

“Okay, THAT’S IT!” Tyler sat up and rolled onto Ethan, squishing him under his weight. “ _This_ is what defensive backs do! They tackle! They _do not_ pirouette!”

“Maybe”—Ethan had to pause to control his giggles—“maybe if you’d done ballet you’d score touchdowns”—he tickled Tyler’s sides—“and then you could – you could”—but he dissolved into giggles.

“ _Very funny_ ,” Tyler said. He rolled onto his back, Ethan on top of him. Tyler tried to shove Ethan off, but the boy was limp with laughter. He took the other boy’s hands, tucked his feet under Ethan’s belly, and lifted him up into the air.

“Hey!” Ethan shrieked.

The girls were beside themselves with laughter. Ethan gazed down at Tyler’s maniacally grinning face. His arms shook with the effort to balance, and Tyler’s socked feet smooshed his still hiccupping belly.

“Tyler! I’m gonna fall!”

Tyler took pity on him and deposited him on the (hard) floor beside him. Ethan was sure his face was red. He swiped his bangs out of his eyes and lay there for a moment.

“That’s going on Twitter,” Kathryn said.

“ _What?_ NO!”

 

Ethan opened his eyes against the softness of a pillow. Something was touching his arm. He closed his eyes.

The something stroked his arm again, scratched at the back of his hand.

“Mmf,” Ethan said,

“Dinner’s ready, sleeping beauty,” someone said. Ethan whuffled. Tyler.

“No,” said Ethan.

The hand moved and lifted off his hood. Ethan blinked blearily up at the man.

“Kathryn and I will eat it all if you don’t hurry up,” Tyler said. Ethan rubbed at his face petulantly and yawned.

“Okay, fine.”

 

He went back to Portland for the holidays. The cold pierced straight through his bones and he got soaked every time he stepped outside. It didn’t stop him from driving the half-hour to the Cape Elizabeth lighthouse and standing on the rocky, salt-sprayed cliffs until after dark.

 

Ethan could never quite figure out what his seventeen-year-old mind was thinking back then. He’d had a chance to meet one of his favorite Youtubers, and he decided to give him a backflip? But it got him to where he was now. And all the teasing was just one giant “I love you”.

After the livestream, Ethan went straight to bed, but he couldn’t sleep. He pulled the covers up to his chin and tossed his head to one side. He shut his eyes resolutely and frowned.

He heard a knock on the door. “Can I come in?”

Ethan sighed. “Yeah.”

He kept his eyes closed as Tyler entered and sat on the edge of the bed. For a moment, neither did anything.

“How’s my hair?” Tyler asked.

Ethan opened one eye and peered at Tyler. “Stupid.”

Tyler smiled. Ethan let his eyelid fall shut. The room fell silent again.

Then Ethan felt fingers running gently through his bangs.

“Goodnight,” said Tyler.

Ethan said nothing. Tyler stood up and left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

 

Ethan had lost track of the days they’d spent filming the Valentine’s Day videos. All he knew was that he’d been perched on a ledge in a stuffy warehouse for over an hour and his leg was starting to cramp up. He pushed his sweaty hair off his forehead and readjusted the heavy camera on his knee.

“—outside for a bit; I think we left the second tripod in the car. We can start up again in five.”

Mark nodded to them and headed toward the door. Ethan sighed, readjusted his camera again, and began the process of untangling his stiff legs. He jerked wrong and a sliver of pain shot up his calf. He hissed.

“You okay up there?” Tyler called from below. The other man moved from his spot by the wall and walked toward the ledge.

Ethan nodded. “Yeah. Just got a cramp in my leg.”

Tyler stood on the chair Ethan had used to climb up and put his hands on the ledge. Ethan raised his eyebrows at the fuzzy look in Tyler’s eyes; Tyler had been slightly ill all week.

“What are you doing?”

Tyler blinked. “I was gonna massage it.”

Ethan stared at Tyler. “No-o.”

Tyler huffed and laughed. “At least hand me your camera.”

Ethan did so, and Tyler obligingly got off the chair. He watched bemusedly as Ethan shimmied off the ledge and back onto the ground. He righted himself and shook out his stiff legs.

Ethan took the camera back. “You’re such a dork, Tyler.”

 

“—edits are so fuckin’ sassy!”

Ethan laughed across the sofa at Tyler, who was pouting.

“You didn’t like the pterodactyl?”

Ethan snorted. “Okay, that was good. The _only_ part that was good. About seventy percent of it was just you putting “NOPE” all over the screen.”

“It was pure art,” Tyler said. “Mark liked it.”

“Mark’s an idiot,” Ethan said, turning to face him and sitting cross-legged.

“Wow, big talk from a tiny boy,” Tyler teased. “You sure about that? How ‘bout I tell hem you said that?”

“I’m not tiny! I’m just slightly short! Your editing was shit!”

“Say that again?” Tyler’s eyebrows jumped up dangerously.

“You heard me!” Ethan’s voice wavered a bit.

“You sure?” Tyler sat up threateningly. “I’m gonna tell Mark.”

“You’re such a tattletale.”

“I’m gonna tell Mark,” Tyler said again, leaning forward. “I’m gonna tell Mark you think he’s an idiot and he’ll fire you and then I’ll edit his videos.”

“They’ll be terrible!” Ethan said, leaning back. Tyler was scooting across the couch now, coming closer and closer—

“RAHH!” Tyler yelled, and catapulted himself on top of Ethan. Ethan squealed embarrassingly and tried to push Tyler away, but Tyler blew a raspberry on his cheek.

“You’re the idiot,” Tyler said, wrapping his limbs around Ethan. Ethan’s fingers flapped uselessly against Tyler’s face; his arms were pinned down. “Mark’s not gonna replace you.”

“Obviously not,” Ethan said, a little weakly. He settled for pressing his cheek against Tyler’s nose.

**Author's Note:**

> Title of the work is a Lana Del Rey song.


End file.
